


The Whole World Fades Away

by NerdyPanda3126



Series: LBSC Sprint Fics [7]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Inspired by Music, LBSC Sprint Fic Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29186454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyPanda3126/pseuds/NerdyPanda3126
Summary: Luka and Marinette get stuck waiting for a train to pass. When Marinette suggests it's like a movie moment, she also inadvertently admits her changing feelings for Luka.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: LBSC Sprint Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978081
Comments: 22
Kudos: 83
Collections: LBSCSprintFicChallenge





	The Whole World Fades Away

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the LBSC Sprint Fic Challenge. 
> 
> The rules are three 15-minute sprints with 24 hours for light editing, which includes new writing to smooth transitions or make it feel complete. And I got a little carried away with this one when I was retyping it, so I think I ended up adding around 700 words (sorry, not sorry?) 
> 
> The prompt I used this time around was [Like a Movie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JSjfNNLby4) by Cam

The brakes on Luka’s truck squealed as he rolled to a stop at the command of the red flashing lights that signaled a train was coming. The arm of the gate sprang to life and stuttered mechanically on its way down until it settled just over the hood of the truck and barred the way forward. 

“Perfect timing,” Luka muttered under his breath before he shifted into park and flicked through the presets on his radio. There was only one station that wasn’t on a commercial break, and he settled on it without seeming to care what the song was before he flicked a nervous glance over to Marinette in the passenger seat. “I don’t think we’ll make your dad’s curfew.” 

She giggled. “He knows I’m safe with you. It’ll be fine.” 

“Says you.” He shot a grin over at her before he started drumming his thumbs on the wheel in time to the music. “He could always make good on that threat to never let me back in the bakery. However would I get my favorite macarons then?” 

“You know he’s all bluster.” Marinette rolled her eyes, then bit her lip. “But if he did decide to ban you… you know you could always sneak in through my room,” she said, knowing as she said it the implications of it and that he wouldn’t take it that way at all. 

He half-shrugged. “You know I suck at climbing drain pipes.” He shot another smirk over at her and she knew perfectly well he not only caught her meaning, but had brushed past it easily. 

They’d been friends for so long, after all. She doubted even her parents would blink an eye at her suggesting he could be in her room without them knowing. It’s not like there had ever been anything between them. At least, not before. 

Not before she’d told him about breaking up with Adrien. Not before he’d told her about wanting to stay single for a while after his last relationship mysteriously ended. Not before tonight, when she’d spent the entire time tucked into his side, his arm draped around her shoulders casually, watching a movie with his sister and his mom. 

It was normally a rowdy event—complete with thrown popcorn and booing. But tonight Juleka had been in charge of picking the movie. And tonight Juleka had flashed an unholy smirk at Luka as she held up the scariest, goriest movie they owned. And tonight Luka had been whispering in her ear when it was okay to look and warning her when to look away. She could’ve sworn at one point he’d chuckled and kissed her hair, but since her face had been buried in his shoulder and she’d flinched into him as someone screamed on screen, she wasn’t sure. 

The train blared its horn on its way in, and Luka flicked the volume on the radio up a couple of notches, anticipating the clatter of the wheels against the tracks. The red lights flashed over their faces. Luka drummed on the wheel and hummed along to the song. A few drops of rain started splattering on the windshield as a storm made its way in. Time seemed frozen, even though everything was still moving forward. 

“It’s like a movie,” Marinette said, then blushed as she realized how ridiculous that sounded. 

“Hmm?”

She hadn’t meant to say anything out loud. She looked out the window, feigning interest in the oncoming train, while she let her blush cool. He reached over and tugged at her pigtail. When she turned back, he was smiling at her, encouraging her to keep going. She smiled back before she dropped her eyes to her hands twisting themselves together in her lap. 

“It’s like those romantic movies, you know? Where there’s always that moment when the guy and the girl get stuck somewhere together and it rains and lightning strikes and somewhere in the background the thunder crashes, and…” Her eyes bounced up to his before she could stop them, and her blush flared again as she realized what her next words would’ve been. The wake coming off the train as it passed by them felt like it rocked the truck back on its heels. 

“And?” he prompted after a moment.

She shifted in her seat and the leather squeaked against her thighs. “And it’s like… they’ve known each other forever, you know? But something changes in that moment and they both realize they’ve wanted to be with each other since forever, but the timing’s never been right before. But now one of them is recently heartbroken and one of them is—for whatever reason—happily single, and—” She sucked in a breath and stopped herself. Too far, Marinette. Too close to home. 

He quirked his eyebrows up and smirked at her. “And?” 

She didn’t dare to hope that he was doing anything but teasing her. But his hand had fallen on her shoulder and his fingers were brushing against the sensitive skin at the base of her neck and she couldn’t stop the goosebumps that raised up on her arms. 

The rain started pattering more insistently on the windshield. Huge raindrops that bounced off the hood and warned of a summer downpour. The flashing red warning lights were starting to blur, until the cab was awash with a soft purple-ish red hue. The train rumbled the floor of the cab under the soles of her shoes. 

“And their eyes meet,” she continued, locking eyes with him as she spoke, “and they know why nothing else has ever worked out with any other person. Because there’s one person they were always meant to be with.”

He hummed in agreement, unintentionally harmonizing with the radio. “Sounds like a great story,” he admitted. She nodded and fought back a shiver as he continued rubbing comforting circles into what she hadn’t realized was a tense muscle. “So what happens next?”

“Well…” She didn’t mean for her voice to fall to a murmur. “There’s always this dramatic pause. Where the music swells and it’s like a drum roll as they both lean towards each other.” 

Was he leaning towards her or was she leaning towards him? Either way their faces were suddenly much closer, their foreheads almost touching over the seat in between them. His hand had shifted on the back of her neck, cradling her as he pulled her close to him. 

“And?” he asked, the question so full of breathless hope that she almost didn’t hear it over the crash of thunder in the distance and the rumbling train. 

“And they kiss,” she said, or at least started to say because before the words were out of her mouth his breath was fanning over her lips and his eyes had fluttered closed and she had closed the short distance to press her lips to his. 

They kissed with the tender timidity of something new, something fragile. Although his fingers found their way into her hair and her hands had somehow ended up clasped around his neck. He pulled away, all too soon, and she chased after him before he chuckled and glanced pointedly out the windshield. 

The train had passed. The flashing lights had stopped. The gates had lifted. She hadn't even noticed. 

Marinette shifted back into her seat and touched her fingers to her lips in disbelief. Luka didn’t say anything, but he couldn’t seem to stop smiling as he shifted back into drive and the truck lurched into forward motion again. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard and they had missed her curfew already. 

“Guess you’d better work on learning to climb those drain pipes,” she managed to say, her tone half-teasing, half-bewildered.

His hands tightened around the wheel—a subtle sign that not only the implication, but the actual possibility had hit him full-on this time. When he’d recovered, he glanced over at her and shot her a bright grin. 

“We could always say the movie ran long.” 

He laughed as she probably turned beet red, then reached over to grab her hand and twine his fingers through hers. After another glance over at her, he brought their joined hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. 

He held her hand the rest of the drive, only breaking his grip to shift when he needed to, and when they got home her dad took one look at their joined hands and swept Luka up into a giant bear hug. 

She thought she heard her dad mutter something like, “About damn time,” in Luka’s ear as he set him back on his feet and Luka gravitated back to her side. 

Luka shrugged as she tucked herself back into the familiar place under his arm, and he squeezed her to him. He hadn’t stopped smiling, and neither had she. He turned his head to catch her eyes before he tucked a finger under her chin and stroked her cheek gently. 

“What can I say?" he asked softly, "when it's right, it's like a movie.” 


End file.
